The Dutch parliament has voted to curb the county’s aid to the Palestinian Authority, citing the P.A.’s policy of paying convicted terrorists and their families.
The Netherlands had provided the P.A. with about $1.6 million in monthly aid, which the P.A. could spend it as its discretion. The Dutch parliament has now decided, however, that any further aid money will be given to specific projects only.
The historic move comes after years of work done in the Dutch parliament by Palestinian Media Watch in exposing the P.A.’s “pay-for-slay” policy.
PMW’s dialog with Dutch parliamentarians on this issue dates back to 2013, when Itamar Marcus, director of PMW, first presented its research on the P.A.’s salaries to terrorists to legislators in the Netherlands. Since then, PMW held numerous meetings with Dutch MPs.
On Tuesday, the Netherlands’ House of Representatives passed motion bucking a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice requiring the bloc’s 28 member states to label Israeli goods made in Judea and Samaria settlements.
The motion, approved by a vote of 82-68, urged the Dutch government to reject the ruling unless similar standards are applied to all disputed territories worldwide, saying that singling out of Israel in this matter was discriminatory.
Itamar Marcus said, “I called MP Joël Voordewind to personally thank him and congratulate him on the government’s decision. The Netherlands is sending to the P.A. a clear message that it is inconceivable that the P.A. receives hundreds of millions of dollars each year from foreign governments to support its activities, while all the time the P.A. squanders hundreds of millions of dollars each year to pay salaries to terrorist prisoners and released prisoners and allowances to the families of dead terrorists.”
Parts of this article first appeared in Israel Hayom.
